1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator, and in particular to a concentration cooling apparatus of a refrigerator capable of performing instant cooling operation and maintaining a temperature inside a cooling chamber uniformly by jetting cold air intensively at a high-temperature load occurred region inside the chilling chamber.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, a refrigerator is partitioned into a freezing chamber for storing frozen food and a chilling chamber for storing cold food, and it has a refrigerating cycle for supplying cold air into the freezing chamber and the chilling chamber.
FIG. 1 is a perspective-sectional view illustrating the conventional refrigerator, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view illustrating a chilling chamber of the conventional refrigerator.
The conventional refrigerator consists of a main body 104 on which a pair of doors 102 open/closed in two ways installed on the front; a freezing chamber 106 placed on the left of the main body 104 and storing frozen food; a chilling chamber 108 partitioned from the freezing chamber 106 by a separation wall 110, placed on the right side of the main body 104 and having plural shelves for mounting cold food; and a cold air supply unit installed at the upper portion of the freezing chamber 106 and supplying air cooled while passing the refrigerating cycle (not shown) to the freezing chamber 106 and the cooling chamber 108.
The cold air supply unit includes a fan 120 installed at the upper rear surface of the freezing chamber 106 and forcibly ventilating air cooled while passing the refrigerating cycle; a panel 128 installed at the lower portion of the fan 120 and having plural cold air discharge holes 130 for discharging cold air inside the freezing chamber 106; a cold air supply path 132 formed at the upper portion of the separation wall 110 in order to make the cold air ventilated from the fan 120 flow into the chilling chamber 108; a cold air discharge duct 134 installed at the upper portion of the chilling chamber 108, communicating with the cold air supply path 132 and discharging the air supplied from the cold air supply path 132 into the chilling chamber 108; and a cold air inflow path 138 formed at the lower portion of the separation wall 110 and making the cold air finishing the cooling operation while circulating the chilling chamber 108 flow into the refrigerating cycle.
Herein, plural cold air discharge holes 136 for discharging cold air into the is chilling chamber 108 are formed at the front and lower surfaces of the cold air discharge duct 134.
And, a temperature sensor 140 is installed at a certain side of the chilling chamber 108, when a temperature inside the chilling chamber 108 is not greater than a set value, cold air supply into the chilling chamber 108 is stopped, when a temperature inside the chilling chamber 108 is not less than a set value, cold air is supplied into the chilling chamber 108.
In the conventional refrigerator, when the refrigerating cycle is operated and the fan 120 is circulated, cold air cooled while passing the refrigerating cycle is respectively discharged into cold air discharge holes 130 of a panel 128 and the cold air supply path 132 by the ventilation pressure of the fan 120.
The cold air discharged into the cold air discharge holes 130 performs the cooling operation of frozen food stored in the freezing chamber 106 while circulating inside the freezing chamber 106.
And, the cold air supplied to the cold air supply path 132 flows into the cold air discharge duct 134 and is discharged into the chilling chamber 108 through cold air discharge holes 136 formed on the cold air discharge duct 134. The cold air discharged into the chilling chamber 108 performs the cooling operation of cold food stored in the chilling chamber 108 while circulating inside the chilling chamber 108, and the cold air finishing the cooling operation flows into the cold air inflow path 138 formed at the lower portion of the separation wall 110 and is cooled again while passing the refrigerating cycle.
However, in the conventional refrigerator, a cold air discharge duct is installed at the upper portion of a chilling chamber, cold air is supplied from the upper portion to the lower portion of the chilling chamber through cold air discharge holes formed on the cold air discharge duct, a temperature variation inside the chilling chamber is big according to a distance from the cold air discharge holes. And, because cold air is discharged only from the cold air discharge duct, when a high temperature load occurs due to foodstuff stored inside the chilling chamber, lots of time is required for equalizing a temperature inside the chilling chamber, and freshness of the foodstuff stored in the chilling chamber may be lowered due to delay in cooling.
In addition, because a temperature sensor and cold air discharge holes are fixed at a certain region, there are some difficulties to detect a temperature of a certain portions of the chilling chamber through the temperature sensor and cold air are discharged onto only limited region, herein, when a load occurs on the certain regions, lots of time is required for solving the temperature variation, and accordingly a temperature inside the chilling chamber may not be uniformly maintained.
In particular, because the cold air discharge holes are formed at the rear of the chilling chamber, cold air supply is concentrated on the rear and center portions of the chilling chamber around the cold air discharge holes, foodstuff stored on that portions may be excessively cooled, in addition, foodstuff stored on portions separated from the cold air discharge holes may be weakly cooled.
In more detail, the temperature variation inside the chilling chamber is big according to a distance from the cold air discharge holes, and accordingly a temperature distribution inside the chilling chamber may not be uniform.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a concentration cooling apparatus of a refrigerator which is capable of maintaining a temperature inside a chilling chamber uniformly in a short time and maintaining freshness of foodstuff stored in the chilling chamber by installing a concentration cooling apparatus inside the chilling chamber and discharging cold air intensively on a high-temperature load occurred region inside the chilling chamber in order to improve a cooling speed on the high-temperature load occurred region.
In addition, it is another object of the present invention to provide a concentration cooling apparatus of a refrigerator which is capable of coping with a high temperature load occurred inside a chilling chamber positively by rotating a cold air jet hole for discharging cold air and a nozzle having a temperature sensor up and down as well as in the circumferential direction in order to widen a cold air discharging region of the cold air jet hole and a temperature sensing region of the temperature sensor.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a concentration cooling apparatus of a refrigerator in accordance with the present invention includes housings respectively installed to at least one cold air guide path formed at the side wall of a chilling chamber in order to guide cold air to the side wall of the chilling chamber; a nozzle rotatably supported by the housings and jetting cold air intensively to a high-temperature load occurred region inside the chilling chamber when the high temperature load occurs at the certain region; a nozzle support member arranged with a certain distance from the outer circumference of the nozzle, connected to the nozzle through a connection rod extended from the both sides of the nozzle and supporting the nozzle rotatably; an infrared temperature sensor installed on the front of the nozzle, rotating with the nozzle and sensing the high-temperature load occurred region; a first driving unit for rotating the nozzle in the circumferential direction by rotating the nozzle support member; and a second driving unit for rotating the nozzle up and down by rotating the connection rod interlocked with the rotation of the nozzle and rotated according to the rotation direction of the nozzle.